Beers. A babe. And Guimaras. The only element in abundance during my recent visit to the mango province with The Tom Cat a week ago last Friday was beer. And rain. A deluge that dogged us all day. But my American expat friend and I dodged our usual dives and headed for a posh hotel at the New Site in San Miguel, Zemkamps Chalet, after a lunch at our favorite eatery, Lisa's Talabahan.

The Tom Cat and LenLen at Lisa's Talabahan

I only consumed one San Miguel Pale Pilsen at Lisa's, along with my "plate o' meat," BBQ pork sticks and chicken (no veggies, hold the rice, please) and let my vegetarian American expat friend pick up the slack on the beer front.

The first Beers & Babe Tour last month resulted in major gastric pain for me the following day that almost involved a visit to our local emergency room in Iloilo City. And though our recent extravaganza commenced around noon and ended at 8 pm with a stop at Sa Payaw, I only quaffed four bottles of my favorite Filipino beer the entire day. The Tom Cat? Who's counting?

The focus on our latest venture was to have a good time downing a few beers and slinging our usual round of cow manure. Topic for the day? Who were some of the great tough guys of the late 60's and early 70's? We came up with Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson. You could make a case for Lee Marvin, also, to be included in that group.

We weren't looking for one-shot wonders like the guy from "Billy Jack," Tom Laughlin. John Wayne? He had some major roles in our designated time period, but "The Duke's" career spanned many eras. He likely was the ultimate tough guy. If Wayne were still alive, he could probably deck Bruce Willis with one punch.

After being allowed by the gracious staff at Zemkamps Chalet to go to the upper floor and drink our Pale Pilsen with a view of San Miguel in Jordan municipality of Guimaras, I ordered french fries and an "American burger" from "Griller's," a new eatery across the street. Fries were only P25, 57¢, an order and the burger cost P129, &2.95 USD.

After an hour, our food arrived. The burger was delivered in a pizza box. It was huge. Mostly bun and veggies. I believe the meat was a soy burger/beef blend, but it was alright. Fries were good. Grease goes well with beer.

But, dear reader, don't be too disappointed that Tom and I did not take any pictures of pretty pinays in Guimaras and only concentrated on consuming beer. We are featuring in this post a young lady from Zamboanga City, Jeny Maturan. Jeny or Jen, as she is known by her Facebook account, is the sister-in-law of one my faithful readers, Lee. The following two photos come from her FB account.

Here is a little bit of information about Baby Sister, as Lee calls her. She works at the Pinoy Mega Store, 19 years old from Zamboanga City. In her spare time (which she has very little of) She likes visiting with her family, and her friends. She enjoys traveling and recently vacationed in Cagayan De Oro and Metro Manila. Jeny is an adventurous girl and is looking forward to experiencing adventures such as camping and fishing. She also enjoys basketball and is a swimmer.

Jen is open to meeting new friends and chatting with them on Facebook. Add her as a friend, Jen Maturan, if you would like to communicate with her. I know that my readers will be respectful in all communications with the pretty pinay.

Thanks to Lee and Jen for allowing the lovely lady's inclusion in this post. Good luck to Jen in her future endeavors. My niece Michelle, now working as a teacher's aide in Guimaras for her Auntie Alida, is currently talking with a fine young man from the States. He's the son of another faithful reader and the two are chatting on a regular basis. Who knows? Cupid's arrows might just hit home in Guimaras and in Zamboanga City.

POST AUTHOR: "THE KANO" aka "THE CRUSTY OLD EXPAT."
Dave DeWall, "The Kano", is the Publisher & Editor-in-Chief of "Philippines Plus" in publication since August 2009. He is also the CEO of Lizard Poop Productions and author of the best-selling guide book "The Philippines Expat Advisor."
Dave moved to the Philippines in July 2009 from Central Illinois with his lovely wife of over 19 years, "The Sainted Patient Wife." The couple reside in a rural province in Western Visayas, Guimaras. The small island province is said to have the sweetest mangoes in the world.
They do not have any children but are the proud owners of eight active canines, including a Belgian Shepherd called "Killer" "Killer" has bitten five people in the last two years along with one goat and a carabao.
"Killer" doesn't like strangers. Or goats. Or carabaos.

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23 thoughts on “A Few Beers. One Babe. And Guimaras.”

Dave,
Looking forward to getting down there and seeing you two. Had a great time in Subic last weekend, but a little to much SMB though. Monsoon rain here now. Hopefully not as much when we get down there. Nice photos of Jen. She will make some lucky man happy. See you Wednesday morning

Too much SMB, PapaDuck? Hmmmmn, I’ve been there before and the asawa is never happy. 🙁
The rain looks like it might be tapering off by Wednesday. Looking forward to seeing Anne and you again. See you at the Iloilo Airport where I’ll watch the “taxi hawkers” yell at folks getting off the flights.

Steve, sorry to hear about Cherry Blossoms. I’m probably going to have new advertisers on the website soon and may be dropping CB. My wife and I have a niece that is currently working in Dubai. Her name is Rita Marie Sevilla. Add her on Facebook and mention my name. Nice girl. Pretty. Hardworking.

Thanks, Rolling, and DIA is free and has lots of listings. Steve, I had an expat friend that has met some ladies from DIA. But know where he met the love of his life? Working at one of the local retail stores in Iloilo. Truth be told, guys, I do make money off commissions from Cherry Blossoms and Filipina Cupid, but you single guys could come out here and meet some local girl in a span of a two or three week vacation without using any internet dating website. The extra money I get from those sites is nice but I sincerely just want to see you single guys out there marry the Filipina of your dreams like I, and so many other guys out there, have.

Thanks guys. Funny, I just got off chat with a Filipina from CB who admitted to using a fake name, someone else’s pictures, wrong age, and wrong location in her profile. She admitted right away because she wanted to be “honest”.

I probably just need to throw caution to the wind and come for a few weeks.

Steve, regardless of what internet dating site you use there is always the period of getting from “internet personality” to real person, and many of us have had great success. We have all had some frustration I am sure. I have a friend whom like you, thinks Baby Sister is to young and he is frustrated with his time on Cherry Blossoms. So my wife and I have been looking over our pool of friends and relatives, kind of putting the word out, if somebody knows somebody who might be interested in communicating with him. We have turned up a possibility or two for him and even a friend of a friend is more solid than an “internet personality.” Of course I am strongly in favor of Dave’s advise in just getting over there on a two or three week vacation and if you have a chance, spend it out of the Metro Manila region. I am just more rural minded.

Yep, Cherry Blossoms, or for that matter, any dating website can be frustrating and has it’s fair share of folks presenting their “internet personality” as Lee puts it. My wife and I did it the old-fashioned way. We wrote letters to each other. Dozens of them.

But Steve, you really can’t go wrong by coming out to the Philippines and meeting some ladies in person. Odds are in your favor of meeting a pretty pinay who could very well turn out to be the woman of your dreams. You’re a smart guy, you’ll be able to spot a scammer, but I believe the majority of the women you meet will be warm, sincere and loyal, just like Lee’s sister-in-law, Baby Sister.

Dave and Lee, thanks for your comments. I think you are both correct that a visit is in order!

I did report her to CB and they responded within an hour that they deleted her profile. In retrospect, it was a bit comical because the pictures were of a Filipina actress that I didn’t recognize and wasn’t even one who was particularly attractive. When she said she had something to tell me, I thought she was going to admit to being a ladyboy. lol.

Come on over, Steve. Just wait until the flooding in Manila is over. PapaDuck can attest to that.

Glad to hear that CB responded quickly, Steve. Unfortunately, what you report is not uncommon on many of these dating websites. Here’s a link to a tool that does an image search of any photos: http://www.tineye.com/
It tracks the source of a picture’s image. You’ll be able to tell if the photo is that of a celebrity and not the real deal.

Hey Steve, in case you are really interested in going to the Philippines, I saw some good airfares a few days ago on Kayak from Dulles to Manila for only $997.00 RT. You will have to play around with the dates to actually find that actual fare, but, I was looking for a fare from late Jan. to early March and found the $997.00 fare. I hate going to Manila, always land in Cebu, but the fare for Cebu is about $350 more, so can stand Manila for 3 or 4 hours to save that much. Then the fare from Manila to Davao was just $76 RT, so pretty good prices for this day and time I thought. The cheap rate was on Saudi Air, which I know nothing about, have always flown KAL from Dulles myself. Think if I remember right the Saudi flight lands in Abu-Dhabi, and change flights there. Just thought you might be interested if your going and since your a fellow Virginian.
These prices are for economy seats of course. I cant afford business or especially first-class seats.

Thanks for the info, Bill S. First class? I only ride first class when I get to “ride shotgun” in a jeepney. 🙂 And btw, have you ever tried explaining the “ride shotgun” expression to a jeepney driver?

Hey thanks Bill. I didn’t think about flights that went in that direction to the Philippines. I was thinking of flying into Hong Kong or some other Asian hub and then hopping a flight on one of the regional carriers to Manila. When I first priced flights a few months ago, that came out slightly cheaper. But the price you found is really good. I don’t mind spending a day or two in Manila. There are some touristy things that I would like to do.

My newest contact seems promising, but time will tell. Any of you guys on CB notice that there are women from certain regions that you really hit it off with? For me, it’s Bacolod/Silay.

Wait until typhoon season is over, Steve. Papa Duck just arrived in Manila, the Cavite area, and had more water than he probably would care to see for awhile. He’s relaxing with us in Iloilo at the moment and is pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the streets (and occasional sunshine) he has seen since his arrival with his new asawa, Anne.

Yeah Dave, I can imagine trying to explain that, but have a feeling that depending on where you are, that expression might be taken literally, which depending on where you are or where your going, the literal explanation could be a good idea, sadly,,,we cant possess guns there though.

My fiancée’s uncle, is the superintendent of the police dept. in Cebu, (which I figure might come in very helpful when I become an expat one day). On my last visit there, we had gone to a very old church that was built back, when the Philippines was under Spanish rule, but I don’t remember the name of the church. She also has another uncle that is one of the priests there, and this was my first time to meet both of them. We got to go back in the priests living area, that was not open to the public. I am not Catholic myself, so I had 7 priests all ganging up on me, trying to make me convert, they saw that I was not being swayed to become Catholic, so at that point they decided that maybe some beer might help, cause I guess I have been known to do things after a few beers that I might not do without beer, but after about an hour of them trying there best to convert me to become a Catholic (It was all done jokingly) they finally gave up on the conversion, and gave us there blessing, 6 beers, and accompanied us to the now waiting police paddy wagon, (don’t remember what they called it) to take us to the Cebu city jail which was about a 30 minute ride away. So Father G rode shotgun with the officer, and my fiancée, her Tita N, and myself all rode in the back with another officer and the beer. I NEVER in my life got more looks and people pointing at me, than on that ride to the jail. My fiancée decided it would be a good time to sit on the floor of the wagon, and attempt to hide her face as best she could to avoid being seen with the “arrested kano”. Women and men, in the same wagon is never done apparently. When we would stop at a light, and I could see I had quite an audience watching the 4 of us, I would take a long drink of beer and people could not believe what they were seeing apparently by the stairs and all the pointing fingers, plus we were all laughing like drunks,(I was the only one drinking) including the officer.
So, yeah it is defiantly more fun in the Philippines, for this future expat.

Interesting story, Bill S, an eclectic group of relatives your fiancée has. I was baptized at birth as a Catholic but have only attended Catholic mass several times in the States when my asawa arrived in November 2009. Been to St. Michael the Arch Angel’s Catholic Church in nearby Guimaras, my wife’s home province, a few times.

I’ve also ridden in the back of a police prisoner transport vehicle. Here’s thatstory from about two years ago. And yes, I did receive more than my fair share of looks, also.

Yeah I had read the story awhile back but didn’t remember all of it with my advancing years and all. Think I have read all your older posts at this point and am up to date.

That’s exactly what I meant by having her uncle to one day be able to help, cause in all likelihood I will at some point need it. Unfortunately he’s in Cebu, and more than likely, we will be in the Davao region. I cant use names, but he is on the very short list of being the Chief one day.

It was really cool though, seeing all the priests back in there chambers, they didn’t have to act like they do when in public, so was extremely surprised to find out some of them actually would drink a beer or two sometimes, 3 of them never drink apparently.

Thanks for checking out my older posts, Bill S. They go all the way back to August 2009 when I started my first blog, “The Rooster Crows at 4am!” Truth be told, I’ve since discovered roosters crow on a 24/7 basis.

Networking in the Philippines is important. Making friends and having relatives that have connections can prove to be extremely useful.

I know that some Catholic priests do drink. The Tom Cat, my American expat friend who is an oblate, lay person at the Trappist Monastery in nearby Guimaras, informs me that the full-fledged “brother’s” there are not allowed to drink or have girlfriends or wives or course. Tom has no intention of giving up his beer or his lovely girlfriend and will not take the pledge to become a full-fledged brother. Can’t blame him there.